“Where’s the basement?”
-Pee Wee Herman (at the Alamo)
If you ingested any amount of television during the 1980s, you are probably familiar with Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee, a comic creation and persona of actor and comedian Paul Reubens, dominated alternative pop culture during the Reagan years. Kind of like a cross between Howdy Doody and the B-52s, Pee Wee Herman brought a strange and surreal space-age retro vibe to America. Pee Wee’s brand of humor was so offbeat and refreshing that we couldn’t help but love him. Recently a news story broke that at first was hard to believe but turned out to be true. It involves a bicycle, and Pee Wee’s distinct connection to Texas and the Alamo.
Besides a hit TV show for kids, and his frequent appearances on late-night television (most often on Late Night with David Letterman), Pee Wee Herman was perhaps best known for the wacky big screen movie hit Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). The story of a boy and his bike, the cinematic action centers around Pee Wee’s vintage 1950s era red and white Schwinn DX cruiser. In movie lingo the bike is what you would call a MacGuffin (an object used as a plot device in movies that the story is centered on). In the movie, Pee Wee’s bike is stolen, and the action tracks his quest to get it back. Various hilarious misadventures follow, and all is wet your pants funny. If you’ve never seen this movie, it is worth watching. Here’s a brief summary…
While shopping, Pee Wee’s bike is stolen. He assumes his hateful neighbor Francis is responsible but can’t prove it. A psychic then tells Pee Wee his bike is in the basement of the Alamo, so his travels begin.
Pee Wee hitchhikes to Texas, riding first with a fugitive convict named Mickey, and then later traveling with trucker Large Marge. At a truck stop, Pee Wee realizes he has lost his wallet, so has to pay for his meal by washing dishes. There he meets Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. Pee Wee encourages her to follow her dreams, but as they watch the sun rise from inside a roadside dinosaur statue, Simone’s jealous boyfriend Andy appears. Pee Wee escapes angry Andy by hoping onto a moving train. Finally arriving at the Alamo, Pee Wee learns there is no basement, and his bike is not there.
Despondent, Pee Wee calls Dottie, his only true friend. He then again runs into Andy and is only able to evade him by posing as a rodeo contestant and riding a bucking bull. Pee Wee is thrown from the bull and knocked out as the bull chases Andy from the arena. Pee Wee later visits a biker bar to use the pay phone and is threatened with death after accidently knocking over a line of motorcycles. Pee Wee wins over the bikers however after borrowing a pair of platform shoes from a small statured fry cook and dancing on the tables to the song Tequila. The bikers then give Pee Wee a motorcycle to finish his journey, but he promptly crashes and winds up in the hospital.
While in the hospital, Pee Wee sees his bike on TV being used as a prop at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. Pee Wee then travels to California, sneaks onto the Warner Brothers lot and grabs his bike. After being chased by security, Pee Wee passes a burning pet shop and stops to rescue the animals inside. Firefighters declare Pee Wee a hero, but the police arrest him anyway. Allowed to keep his bike, the studio president agrees to drop the charges against Pee Wee in exchange for the rights to adapt his story into a film starring James Brolin (as “P.W. Herman”) and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie. The movie ends with Pee Wee and Dottie at a drive-in theater, watching this film. Ultimately, Pee Wee and Dottie depart on their bikes, with Pee Wee claiming that he doesn’t need to watch the movie because he’s already “lived” it. This is one bizarre and fun movie to watch. Fast forward to today…
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and its ties to Texas, Pee Wee’s red bike (one of several used in the movie and recently acquired at auction for $125,000), is to be put on display at the Alamo. It will serve as a centerpiece of a new visitor center and museum in the Mays Family Gallery, slated to open in the fall of 2027. Until then you can see Pee Wee’s bike at the Ralston Family Collections Center there on the Alamo grounds.
I am glad that Pee Wee’s bike has finally made it to the Alamo…
© 2025 Jody Dyer
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